Philip Peters responds to me: >>But for me, Vivaldi offers mediocre melodies... > >Bach thought quite differently about Vivaldi's melodies, he even used a >number of them >in his own work. Beethoven took a next-to-nothing theme of Diabelli's and created a masterpiece. Does this necessarily mean that Beethoven thought highly of the Diabelli theme? There can be a large number of reasons why one composer borrows from another. I do wonder if we have any documented quotes from Bach relating to his opinion of Vivaldi. Don Satz [log in to unmask]